July 7, 2010

Each day, each week, each month here seems to breeze by so quickly. It is the middle of winter now, and through June and into July the river water has consistently continued to rise. The rivers branching from the Okavango are even much higher than last year and the current levels have not been this high in decades. Flooding has slowly been taking place in many areas including Maun. This time last year, the Kowalski's, our FMS team mates had to move into the flats next door to us when their property flooded. Now in just a little over a week, they will be heading back to Canada for 3 to 6 months. They are really on loan to FMS from Mission Aviation Fellowship, and their main mission organization wants them back in Canada for a few months. We have truly enjoyed working and fellow-shipping with them over the past year. There will be a hole in our lives until they return....

A weekly highlight for Julie continues to be teaching Bible Club. During the first week in June, we were blessed with a visiting YWAM team (Youth With A Mission) of young adults from a variety of nationalities. They were eager to help with Bible Club one week, and the students enjoyed the role play activity of the Old Testament Bible story explaining the obedience and faith displayed by Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. (Daniel 3) Note the blackboard with the fire drawn on it.

Below, the team and some of the students are role playing the three Bible characters in the furnace with the Lord, while the fire is so hot that the guards outside the furnace die from the heat. The students and Julie really enjoyed the team, and their creative contribution to the awesome children attending Bible Club.

Julie enjoys teaching new songs to the group attending Bible club, and the kids are fascinated with the flannel graph stories she is using to teach Biblical principles they can apply to their daily lives.
It has also been a pleasure for Julie to team with her good friend and fellow teacher, Angela, in leading the children to trust and love the Lord with all their "heart, soul, and mind." (Matthew 22:37)
The middle of the month was full of celebrations and celebrities. The first celebration was in honor of Cheryl's birthday, and a few of her closest friends along with Julie organized a brunch at Island Safari Lodge on her special day.

After a lovely meal, there were even birthday cheese cakes! Everyone had a memorable time of celebration and fellowship that day. All of the ladies will be missing Cheryl while she is away in Canada.

That same week-end we were invited to attend a Joe Jonas concert at the All Nations Village Church. He was visiting Botswana youth in the area to promote abstinence before marriage. We must confess that we had no idea who he was, but apparently Joe is one of three musical celebrity brothers from the states. It appeared by the response from the crowd, that he must be quite popular. Colin was even asked at one point to be a bouncer if the crowd got out of hand. There were no problems though, as the people of Botswana tend to be very mannerly and even the excited youth stayed in their seats.

The next day, Joe, his hosts in Maun, and his attendants who included a very large body guard, all chartered one of Flying Mission Services twin engine King Air planes to fly out to the Okavango Delta for a sight seeing safari. Below is a picture of Patricia and MT with Joe as they assisted the group through the airport to the plane.

A few days later, the Joe Jonas group was flown back in to Maun to attend a large celebration hosted by a local wildlife conservation trust. The presentation of a creative sports program for school age children that promotes respect for self and wildlife, was by invitation only. We were invited to attend along with one of the FMS Gaborone pilots, Peter, who had been flying the Jonas group around Botswana. The picture below was taken at the sports stadium with the children sitting behind the stage.

Peter sat with us in the stands, and through his few days visiting in Maun we delighted in getting to know him better. Peter (pictured below) and his family, have just been in Botswana for 3 months, and Peter is on a leave of absence for Alaska Airlines to serve with FMS.

Through out the day, there were speeches by local and government leaders in addition to demonstrations by the school children of soccer skills they have learned in the program. Then the director explained how the skills are tied into the knowledge of animal behavior. In between speeches and activities Joe Jonas, entertained the large crowd in attendance.

Highlighting the event was the special guest speaker, Prince William, seen below. With such a high profile celebrity at the event there were lots of reporters and security personnel, along with British dignitaries from the embassy in Gaborone. We felt rather privileged to be among the invited guest and to represent FMS at the affair.

The following week-end Colin finally had more than one day off at a time since our return from the states, so we headed out of Maun for a few days. Friends of ours have owned a large game farm for a number of years about 90 minutes drive from Maun, and we had been invited out to visit. Colin often flies over the property in his comings and goings to Jack's Camp on charters. The farm is pictured below from the air. The loop of sand road is where the main camp is, and the rest is just wild open country.

Not only did we enjoy the time spent with our friends, but it is so pleasant to be out in the bush with all it's rugged beauty and wildlife. We were in need of that tranquility. While sitting on the ground by a water hole, Colin was approached by the female Steenbok pictured below. (Water hole story to follow.)

We so value being in the bush, and have come to appreciate the birds singing and fluttering around everywhere. Blue Waxbills and hundreds of other small birds (below) decorate the trees like Christmas ornaments.

Guinea Fowl wander out of the bush to the water hole acting much like small turkeys.

Greeves Starlings and others take turns for a morning bath.

Colin says: "Julie and I were privileged and generously invited to a friend's thirty square mile ranch east of Maun for a few days rest. The rancher raises wild game such as kudu, gemsbok, eland and other plains game for the local meat market and specialty restaurants in our area. During this resent visit, my friend decided it would be a good idea to harvest a kudu, also known as the gray ghost, or eland for ourselves to share for the meat. The animals were especially wary because of the two lions that recently got through the fence and were making their presence known. With the winter dry bush, my feet made a lot of noise crunching the leaves as we tried to stalk and sneak through the brush. All the kudu and eland I saw were fleeing well ahead of us. On the last morning, I elected to sit in a blind eight feet above the ground watching a water hole about a fifteen minute walk from the camp. I was in the blind thirty minutes after light. One does not walk to the water hole in the dark... leopards, you know.
From six thirty until nine o'clock I watched a non stop parade of small critters like mongoose, steenbok, warthog, and at least twenty-five different types of birds. By nine o'clock the sun had come up enough to be warm and helped set the stage for a nap. As my eye lids slowly opened for one last look I was startled to see six kudu in the water hole looking up at the blind. Finally seeing a kudu (elk size animal) standing still, and with a final chance for much needed meat, I was determined to stay calm and cool...but it was not to be. The smoother I tried to be moving the rifle to the blind window, the shakier I got. That kudu was looking straight at me with his eyes getting bigger every moment! When I did shoot I was ecstatic to see him drop in his tracks, but that good feeling lasted only moments when I realized I'd also dropped him in the middle of the water hole!
In Alaska it is a major sin to shoot a moose in the water, as that involves skinning and butchering the entire beast in ice water. Ahhhh Africa! A quick walk back to camp brought the guys with a truck to tow him out and bring him to camp.

Having bumped into numerous elephant in the bush, some as close as 10 feet away, I find them exciting but not especially intimidating. How can it be that kudu are more intimidating than elephants?"

Not only was the peace and solitude of the bush invigorating, but it was a much needed retreat after 6 weeks of being extremely busy after our return from the states. Also, our share of the animal will keep us in meat for a while, which is a tremendous blessing!

Each month, people come and go from our home as they stay with us for different reasons. Sometimes, it is FMS personnel from Gaborone like Peter and the two other pilots, in addition to the chief pilot, who were here in June. Other times, there are a few different missionary friends we have made from the out lying villages that need accommodation while doing business in Maun. We do not always mention that area of hospitality and help that we feel is a large part of Christian service that we have done while living here. Providing hospitality is just one way we can share what we have with those the Lord brings to us.

At the end of the month we were excited to finally meet a friend of our oldest son, who had contacted us about traveling in Botswana after attending the World Cup games in South Africa. He was traveling with his parents, girlfriend of ten years, and a childhood friend that he grew up with in Kenai, Alaska. Ted now lives in Portland, Oregon, and that is also where our son Zachary is living. After months of emailing, the group was able to share two nights with us before heading off to the Moremi Game Reserve. They will eventually weave their way through Chobe National Park in northern Botswana, before crossing into Zambia to see Victoria Falls.

It was great to have visitors from the states and briefly show them some of what we have come to love about the people and area around Maun. Our first stop was to our neighbor's basket shop where they found many exquisite baskets that our dear neighbor weaves.

There was also another local woman helping in the shop that day, and she gave us all a brief lesson in basket weaving. It takes weeks of work to create each basket.

Later in the day, a scenic flight was arranged with FMS so they could get an aerial view of the Okavango Delta and many of the wild animals living there.
The next day, the group did a boat ride up the Thamalakane River to the Boro River, where they transferred to mokoros as their mode of transportation. Mokoros are flat bottomed, canoe type boats that are quietly poled along the river by the local people. After returning mid-afternoon, the group did a few more last minute errands in Maun before they loaded up in their rented 4x4 to drive into the bush. The plan was to camp just outside the park boarder not far from Maun.

The large Land Cruiser they rented in South Africa, came fully equipped and carried two pop-up tents to sleep in on the top of the truck. We have repeatedly extended an open invitation to anyone of you willing to venture over here to see us, and maybe seeing some of these photos will act as a catalyst to motivate you.

Other than the activities mentioned above, our day to day life continues to revolve around relationships and service to others through our work with FMS. Much of our time is spent at the airport, preparing for flights and meeting people from all over the world as they come to experience the beauty of God's creation here in Botswana.

Entrance to the Muan terminal pictured above. Colin on the airport apron with the Cessna 207 on a rare cloudy winter day pictured below.

The change for us in moving to Botswana has been an amazing experience, and Colin has treasured the challenges and experiences added to his lengthy flying career. He is pictured below, high over Africa and hard at work in the Cessna 210.


One of the greatest joy to our lives each day, each week, and each month have been the children that surround us, especially those coming to the church we attend. Julie has been encouraged by the large number of children motivated to learn more about God's love through the Sunday school program that she has been helping to coordinate. Colin loves to build relationships with the children before and after church by just showing them attention and loving them.

Part of Colin's church gang before Sunday school pictured above. Right now lemons are in season on trees around town, and the local kids pluck them from the trees on the way to church. They eat them (with a perfectly straight face) during the service as we would eat an orange.

Colin's "grandbaby" Briane (Misheck and Debra's boy) at church pictured below.

We feel so fortunate to have found a loving church family, and look forward to each week when we can grow closer to the Lord and each other in our time of fellowship there. As we celebrate the end of our second year serving here in Botswana, and look forward to what is in store for us during the next two years, we want to once again give thanks for so many friends and family both far and near that have deeply blessed and enriched our lives. It is our hope in just being open and available in whatever and whoever the Lord brings into our lives each day, each week, and each month that we too can be a blessing just as we have been blessed.